Beyond the Western Deep

Hey folks! Sorry, but we need to push the page update a couple days to Monday this week. No new excuse, just the typical packed-schedule and last-second deadlines that have previously accompanied delays.

In honor of the Olympic ceremonies being held this evening, I figured I would take this opportunity to resurrect a classic series of images from the last Olympic Games! First up, Quinlan takes on the uneven bars! He’s got a routine that lasts 42 minutes and involves no fewer than 87 flips before he even thinks about touching the ground. Not surprisingly, the Tamian have a pretty extensive collection of gold, gold, and also gold medals for gymnastic events.

Dakkan’s representing Lutra in any number of swimming and diving events. He can hold his breath for ten whole minutes! Or wait, no, that’s somebody else. They say that when he dives, he’s in his own little world. Or wait, no, that’s also somebody else.

The Canid are very good at punching things. They’re so good at it, they’ve managed to focus that energy into winning medals devoted entirely to the act. Most of the time the competitors aren’t even aware they’re earning medals — they just keep punching things until they get bored.

The Ermehn, with their lithe frames and cultural background in one-on-one fights to the death, took a keen interest in Judo. Fun fact: nobody gets their throat cut open in judo championships anymore. There was that one time, but the rules have thankfully changed since then.

The Polcan live most of their lives on the open sea, so rowing is really less a sport and more a matter of survival. Heck, their nation’s flag is a ship — the sea defines the Polcan, perhaps even moreso than the Lutren. The Lutren may be at home in the sea, but the Polcan are at home anywhere on its surface.

What’s a fun sport to play in the searing desert heat? How about jumping over Sandskimmer maws and trying not to fall in? If you’ve seen Return of the Jedi or played SimAnt you know what I’m talking about — Sandskimmers are like Treewalkers, only instead of rampaging through the trees, they prefer to hide in the sand and catch wandering travelers unawares. The Vulpin, perhaps after having a little too much wine to drink one day, decided that leaping over their open jaws could translate into some manner of competitive sport. Soon they realized they didn’t need the Sandskimmers there — death counts dropped dramatically, and the Vulpin long-jump became a thing.

Somewhere in Gair, eleven Felis stood on one side of a field, while another eleven stood on the other side. Perhaps they were there to fight a small-scale familial war? Maybe it was a party of some kind? The exact details are secreted away high in the Spire of Gair, but that’s not the important part of the story. Nobody is quite sure how it happened, but a ball was dropped in the middle of this field, between the two groups of eleven Felis. Soccer was, as the story goes, the natural result of 22 cats chasing a ball around.

We’ll update the page in the next few days. Have a great weekend!